Not sure what that has to do with the topic, though. Has anyone accused Cambridge Analytica of being "sneaky" about its own existence? I thought the accusation was that they harvested facebook user data w/o consent; and that their executive might be lying about what work they did or didn't do for Lukoil.

Not sure what that has to do with the topic, though. Has anyone accused Cambridge Analytica of being "sneaky" about its own existence? I thought the accusation was that they harvested facebook user data w/o consent; and that their executive might be lying about what work they did or didn't do for Lukoil.

Yeah, I saw that it's nothing more than an email link not the more detailed marketing site of CA. I suspect its no more than a placeholder for the domain name.

I wasn't really claiming CA was sneaky. They actively advertise their services for commercial and political purposes. It's the shock and outrage that explodes when people find out that others are buying and using market research that is weird.

I'm of two minds on this one. I can see why folks don't like it but they are the ones putting themselves on display.

Mining facebook profiles has to be the simplest thing in the world. People use the thing to broadcast shit about themselves. They freely publish the information and are then astounded that anyone might see it. You don't even need to be a friend or on a share list in many cases. One of the things it will do is show your public pictures. Those alone will tell a lot about you. Your choice of memes a whole lot more.

Facebook, Google and a lot of others are making billions doing exactly this. Their TOS require you to give it up and then they package and sell it.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Yeah, I saw that it's nothing more than an email link not the more detailed marketing site of CA. I suspect its no more than a placeholder for the domain name.

I wasn't really claiming CA was sneaky. They actively advertise their services for commercial and political purposes. It's the shock and outrage that explodes when people find out that others are buying and using market research that is weird.

I'm of two minds on this one. I can see why folks don't like it but they are the ones putting themselves on display.

Mining facebook profiles has to be the simplest thing in the world. People use the thing to broadcast shit about themselves. They freely publish the information and are then astounded that anyone might see it. You don't even need to be a friend or on a share list in many cases. One of the things it will do is show your public pictures. Those alone will tell a lot about you. Your choice of memes a whole lot more.

Facebook, Google and a lot of others are making billions doing exactly this. Their TOS require you to give it up and then they package and sell it.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Can we sieze the assets of principal officers of Cambridge Analytica as a foreign controlled (hired) organization attempting to harm the nation? We would if it was a North Korean hired Chinese organization not interfering with a US election.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Can we sieze the assets of principal officers of Cambridge Analytica as a foreign controlled (hired) organization attempting to harm the nation? We would if it was a North Korean hired Chinese organization not interfering with a US election.

More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead over Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has been so 20th-century. His has been of the century we’re in.

That’s not surprising. Obama spent only 10 years of his adult life in the split world of the cold war, double that in a post-Berlin Wall world of growing interconnectedness. MAC — mutually assured connectivity — has replaced the MAD — mutually assured destruction — of cold-war days.

For Clinton, born in 1947, that ratio is different. Her mental paradigm is division. When her husband last ran for president in 1996, the Internet was marginal. The thinking and people from that campaign have proved unable to fast-forward a dozen years. They’ve been left like deer blinded by the Webcam lights of the Obama juggernaut.

1

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Can we sieze the assets of principal officers of Cambridge Analytica as a foreign controlled (hired) organization attempting to harm the nation? We would if it was a North Korean hired Chinese organization not interfering with a US election.

I'd rather seize their funder's assets. Mercer and his evil spawn daughter Rebekah have proven to be a pox on the ass of Amerika.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Here's a lengthy (undercover) article by Channel 4 News in England about how Cambridge Analytica operates. Money shot is in the last few minutes when the boss, Nix, shows up. But the whole thing is quite interesting: (edited, video posted above)

I joined years ago, and only friends with a couple dozen family and friends, and have not posted much for those 4 years. It never felt right to "share", personal information, in such a public venue.......

I know they have me and my data all over their digital spreadsheets forever

but if enough people leave they will change their ways - if you all stick with them - so that you can see what your kids are doing -then they will carry on with their fiddly diddly and dancing with the Russians.

Google is just as bad I am sure.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I joined years ago, and only friends with a couple dozen family and friends, and have not posted much for those 4 years. It never felt right to "share", personal information, in such a public venue.......

I'm staying just to see if I ever catch a glimpse of Rainbow Bernie. So far, no luck.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I know they have me and my data all over their digital spreadsheets forever

but if enough people leave they will change their ways - if you all stick with them - so that you can see what your kids are doing -then they will carry on with their fiddly diddly and dancing with the Russians.

Google is just as bad I am sure.

Facebook advertises and sells the data. CA subscribed and did a better job than the other guys.

What have the Russians got to do with it?

WAIT, I just googled CA and Russia and got this astounding tidbit from the LA Times. Vlad's going to have a lot of fun with this one.

California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed "Calexit," in 2018.

British lawmakers call on Zuckerberg to appear before parliament

British lawmaker on Tuesday called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before parliament to respond to reports that Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by the Trump campaign, harvested data from millions of people without their permission.

Damian Collins, chairman of parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, wrote to Zuckerberg that it's time for a Facebook executive to address concerns over users' data security, The Independent reported.

"Given your commitment at the start of the New Year to 'fixing' Facebook, I hope that this representative will be you," he wrote.

Meanwhile, the British Information Commission is planning to conduct an on-site investigation of Cambridge Analytica's offices following a report that showed the company's CEO speaking on a recording that his firm used bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians.

Share on other sites

FTC probing Facebook for use of personal data: report

.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly launching an investigation into Facebook over whether it violated terms of consent in the wake of reports a data firm harvested information from millions of profiles.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that the investigation relates to whether Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by the Trump campaign, to obtain some Facebook users' personal data in violation of its policies.

Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica from the platform on Friday after reports it had not fully deleted data it obtained from Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan.

The professor reportedly harvested more than 50 million Facebook profiles from his app, which required a Facebook login, despite only 270,000 having given permission for their data to be harvested.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

If the storage company does not invest in locks and a bunch of customer goods are stolen, the company is grossly negligent and the thieves are criminals.

Anyone that put anything in this particular storage locker and DIDN'T think Russians and everyone else with a few bucks couldn't steal their shit is freaking retarded, but my anti-Facebook campaign has succeeded exactly 0% of the time on anyone but my wife.

Link to post

Share on other sites

If the storage company does not invest in locks and a bunch of customer goods are stolen, the company is grossly negligent and the thieves are criminals.

Anyone that put anything in this particular storage locker and DIDN'T think Russians and everyone else with a few bucks couldn't steal their shit is freaking retarded, but my anti-Facebook campaign has succeeded exactly 0% of the time on anyone but my wife.

Not sure what that has to do with the topic, though. Has anyone accused Cambridge Analytica of being "sneaky" about its own existence? I thought the accusation was that they harvested facebook user data w/o consent; and that their executive might be lying about what work they did or didn't do for Lukoil.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

What is genius for Obama is a scandal for Trump. The world needs a Hypocrisy Moratorium in the media.

On Sunday, The Guardian reported on the supposedly nefarious workings of President Trump’s data-gathering team at Cambridge Analytica. The report suggested that Cambridge Analytica had essentially issued questionnaires through a third party; those questionnaires, which were personality quizzes, requested that you use your Facebook login. Cambridge Analytica then compiled data regarding those who completed the quiz and cross-referenced that data with political preferences in order to target potential voters.

This isn’t particularly shocking. In 2012, The Guardian reported that President Obama’s reelection team was “building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before.”

What, exactly, would Obama be doing? According to The Guardian, Obama’s new database would be gathered by asking individual volunteers to log into Obama’s reelection site using their Facebook credentials. “Consciously or otherwise,” The Guardian states, “the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page — home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends — directly into the central Obama database.”
Facebook had no problem with such activity then. They do now. There’s a reason for that. The former Obama director of integration and media analytics stated that, during the 2012 campaign, Facebook allowed the Obama team to “suck out the whole social graph”; Facebook “was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.” She added, “They came to [the] office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side.”

Not so with Trump. As soon as Facebook realized that Cambridge Analytica had pursued a similar strategy, they suspended the firm.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Cambridge Analytica, the market leader in the provision of data analytics and behavior communications for political campaigns, today announced the appointment of Matthew Oczkowski to Director of Product and Molly Schweickert to Director of Digital. Both Ozckowski and Schweickert come from Governor Scott Walker’s presidential campaign, and bring vast U.S. political experience to the table in addition to their backgrounds and expertise in data science and digital marketing.

Prior to joining Cambridge Analytica, Oczkowski served as Chief Digital Officer for Scott Walker’s gubernatorial reelection campaign in 2014, as well as for Walker’s presidential run in 2015. Previously, he also ran the digital department at the public affairs firm, Advocacy Group Inc., where he worked with many of the largest trade associations, non-profits, and corporations to mobilize activists.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The only reason I have a FB account is to keep track of the R2AK. I killed my first account years ago, and this one will go as soon as possible.

At this point of the interwebs, I don't see any good reason to force participation in FB for any events period. Just create a website and figure out the plugins or services you'll need for a successful event. You'll create a better experience.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.

Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012, told the Guardian he warned senior executives at the company that its lax approach to data protection risked a major breach.

“My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” he said.

Parakilas said Facebook had terms of service and settings that “people didn’t read or understand” and the company did not use its enforcement mechanisms, including audits of external developers, to ensure data was not being misused.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

It was definitely a harmful data breach. Just because the EULA creates a legal loophole for Facebook to profit from data breaches doesn't make it less damaging to the class of users/voters who would rationally prefer not being scientifically propagandized at the personal data level.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

BOOM! Cambridge Analytica explodes following extraordinary TV expose

Updated Controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica has been hit with an emergency data seizure order in England following an extraordinary series of events Monday night that revolved around a TV undercover expose.

Following a day in which the company became the focus of attention online, in print, and in the UK Parliament and US Congress for its unethical use of user data, senior executives from the firm were then shown on camera boasting about the use of dark methods, including honey traps, fake news and sub-contracting with ex-spies to entrap individuals.

Those revelations – filmed during an undercover investigation by Channel 4 in the UK – came as the controversial company was already in the news after it was revealed it had secretly grabbed the personal details of over 50 million Facebook users and used the data to sell voter targeting services. The whole segment can be seen here:

Following the segment on those secret recordings, UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said she would seek a warrant on Tuesday forcing Cambridge Analytica to hand over relevant data, after she said the company had refused to respond sufficiently to earlier requests.

Adding to a sense of drama, as Denham was on television saying she would apply for the warrant, a Channel 4 reporter posted outside the company's headquarters reported that a team from Facebook was inside the building ensuring that their purloined data had been deleted.

That series of events sparked one senior politician, live on air, to outline his concern that the company could be deleting incriminating data as they were talking. Soon after, other journalists and politicians expressed their dismay at the two-day lead-time that a company that has just been shown to be unscrupulous and may have committed criminal acts was being given to delete any evidence of wrongdoing.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.

Share on other sites

BOOM! Cambridge Analytica explodes following extraordinary TV expose

Updated Controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica has been hit with an emergency data seizure order in England following an extraordinary series of events Monday night that revolved around a TV undercover expose.

Following a day in which the company became the focus of attention online, in print, and in the UK Parliament and US Congress for its unethical use of user data, senior executives from the firm were then shown on camera boasting about the use of dark methods, including honey traps, fake news and sub-contracting with ex-spies to entrap individuals.

Those revelations – filmed during an undercover investigation by Channel 4 in the UK – came as the controversial company was already in the news after it was revealed it had secretly grabbed the personal details of over 50 million Facebook users and used the data to sell voter targeting services. The whole segment can be seen here:

Following the segment on those secret recordings, UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said she would seek a warrant on Tuesday forcing Cambridge Analytica to hand over relevant data, after she said the company had refused to respond sufficiently to earlier requests.

Adding to a sense of drama, as Denham was on television saying she would apply for the warrant, a Channel 4 reporter posted outside the company's headquarters reported that a team from Facebook was inside the building ensuring that their purloined data had been deleted.

That series of events sparked one senior politician, live on air, to outline his concern that the company could be deleting incriminating data as they were talking. Soon after, other journalists and politicians expressed their dismay at the two-day lead-time that a company that has just been shown to be unscrupulous and may have committed criminal acts was being given to delete any evidence of wrongdoing.

WHo wants to bet the loony hypocrite lefties won't offer any of the "out of context" "selective edit" objections to this undercover video.

It's from Channel 4, not O'Keefe. The former has a long history of accurate reporting and will answer to the government when caught breaching it's ethical obligations. O'Keefe... not so much. And Jack - they're not liberals.

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.

Private information?

If I put it on FB, it's not private. Yeah, I know there are privacy settings. To the extent I set them, I set everything to public.

People who are SHOCKED that stuff they post on the internet gets out on the internet are actually kind of amusing to me.

5 hours ago, lasal said:

It was definitely a harmful data breach. Just because the EULA creates a legal loophole for Facebook to profit from data breaches doesn't make it less damaging to the class of users/voters who would rationally prefer not being scientifically propagandized at the personal data level.

I'm still hoping to be personally propagandized at the individual level, preferably by Rainbow Bernie. But no one seems to think my vote is worth trying to get.

3 hours ago, Sol Rosenberg said:

Whoops

An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

It was definitely a harmful data breach. Just because the EULA creates a legal loophole for Facebook to profit from data breaches doesn't make it less damaging to the class of users/voters who would rationally prefer not being scientifically propagandized at the personal data level.

I'm still hoping to be personally propagandized at the individual level, preferably by Rainbow Bernie. But no one seems to think my vote is worth trying to get.

If you wanna be a Berner, just do it Tom. No need to wait for the propaganda.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica's collection of Facebook data, according to former employee

Source:WaPo

LONDON — Conservative strategist Stephen K. Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters, a former employee of the data-science firm said Tuesday.

The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year.

-snip-

In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post at his lawyer’s London office, Wylie said that Bannon — while he was a top executive at Cambridge Analytica and head of Breitbart News — was deeply involved in the company’s strategy and approved spending nearly $1 million to acquire data, including Facebook profiles, in 2014.

“We had to get Bannon to approve everything at this point. Bannon was Alexander Nix’s boss,” said Wylie, who was Cambridge Analytica’s research director. “Alexander Nix didn’t have the authority to spend that much money without approval.”

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

If you wanna be a Berner, just do it Tom. No need to wait for the propaganda.

I've been a fan of some of Bernie's positions for many years. Lots of House bills that went nowhere were sponsored by Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, so I knew who he was long before he drew much national attention.

But I'm talking about the Superhero Rainbow Bernie, not the mortal politician. Rainbow Bernie changed EVERYTHING.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I've been a fan of some of Bernie's positions for many years. Lots of House bills that went nowhere were sponsored by Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, so I knew who he was long before he drew much national attention.

But I'm talking about the Superhero Rainbow Bernie, not the mortal politician. Rainbow Bernie changed EVERYTHING.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, in first response to Cambridge Analytica revelations

Source:Washington Post

The chief executive committed to fixing the breach of trust between the social media giant and its users. Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on his personal Facebook page that the company will give users new tools to see how their data is being used and shared. Facebook added that it will further restrict developers access to data to prevent abuse.

As questions have mounted about data firm Cambridge Analytica’s alleged misuse of Facebook data from up to 50 million user profiles, it has not only caught the eye of Congressional investigators but also the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team for the last several weeks has had a growing interest to better understand the relationship between the campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica, sources tell ABC News.

The company is also under investigation by British officials for its use of Facebook users’ data.

Sources tell ABC News several digital experts who worked in support of Trump’s bid in 2016 have met with Mueller's team for closed-door interviews. The staffers, most of whom were employed by the RNC, served as key members of the 2016 operation working closely with the campaign and the data firm, the sources said. The company worked closely with the Republican candidate’s political team.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, in first response to Cambridge Analytica revelations

Source:Washington Post

The chief executive committed to fixing the breach of trust between the social media giant and its users. Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on his personal Facebook page that the company will give users new tools to see how their data is being used and shared. Facebook added that it will further restrict developers access to data to prevent abuse.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

A spokesperson for Wylie said their client had been open about his role in working with Kogan and Cambridge Analytica and that he has been working with British authorities for several months. The spokesperson would not comment on specific claims Kogan made about Wylie to CNN.

Facebook did not respond to Kogan's claims.

Kogan told CNN on Tuesday that when he began his work looking into what can be predicted about any given person based on what that person "likes" on Facebook, he was relying upon research that had been done by others, but after he began looking into it himself, he said, he found the model was not effective.

"What we found ourselves was that the data isn't very accurate at the individual level at all," he said.

As a result, he said he believes that Cambridge Analytica was selling a "myth" to political campaigns by suggesting they could offer a more sophisticated method of targeting voters by determining their personality types through social media.

Kogan said he would be happy to testify before Congress on his work for Cambridge Analytica and to speak to authorities should they wish to talk with him.

He also said he hopes that there may be a "silver lining" to the current controversy, a discussion about how social media companies like Facebook use personal information to sell ads.

"The broader question is the elephant in the room," he said, adding that in exchange for free services like Facebook, users become the product that is sold to advertisers. "Are we concerned with being the product?" he asked.